1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ink tanks for reserving inks supplied for a recording means, an ink tank holder loaded with the ink tanks and an ink jet recording apparatus including the ink tank holder.
2. Related Background Art
Dye inks have hitherto been mainly used in an ink jet recording apparatus for recording by discharging ink droplets. In terms of a light resistance, a gas resistance, etc., however, an importance of pigment inks is recognized, and the pigment inks come to be utilized for special colors (especially black).
Images recorded by the ink jet recording apparatus have been, however, visualized with a high quality over the recent years, wherein applications demanded of the ink jet recording apparatus have come to extend to fields requiring the light resistance and the gas resistance such as for outputting posters, photo images and so forth. In response to these demands, progresses in development of the ink jet recording apparatus utilizing the pigment inks for all the colors, have been seen in recent years.
The pigment inks still, however, have some inferiority to the dye inks in terms of a density, a color property, etc., and each of manufacturing companies manufactures the ink jet recording apparatuses using the dye inks and the ink jet recording apparatus using the pigment inks, respectively.
It is, however, large of demerit in cost from a viewpoint of a maker side that manages stocks to manufacture the ink jet recording apparatus having an ink tank holder for an exclusive use of the dye inks or an ink tank holder for the exclusive use of the pigment inks. In particular, an expansion of a market scale of the ink jet recording apparatuses for the exclusive use of outputting the posters and photo images, is underway, and an increase level thereof does not become so large, wherein the number of shipments is not yet stabilized. Therefore, the stock management is hard to handle, and there is a necessity of having a comparatively large quantity of stocks. Further, even the normal types of ink jet recording apparatuses for mass-selling decrease in their life-time as products nowadays, and the stock management is also hard to handle. Hence, a problem is that if there are a large quantity of stocks, there must be a large number of stocks to be disposed of. Moreover, it is preferable in terms of an environmental aspect under strict regulations in recent years to decrease the number of stocks to be disposed of because of giving a less damage to the environment.
Further, a recording apparatus serving for both of the pigment and the dye can also developed as other countermeasure, however, this scheme is not practical because of raising a cost for the main body and upsizing the main body as well.